This weekend, unfortunately, I was bogged down with a fever and nasty sore throat. I was miserable at night and miserable during the day. So, of course, I watched some Star Wars.

Being an avid Star Wars fan, I probably own way too many versions of the original trilogy. But, hey, you can never have enough right? I took to school the latest versions of the DVDs that have been released. Usually I watch the very original version on the bonus disc but yesterday I decided to watch the Special Edition of the Empire Strikes Back instead, since I love how clean the image is.

I forgot how much these DVDs annoy me. So many little things have been changed in them. It goes beyond the Special Edition versions that Lucas released 10 years ago. At least with the Special Editions, they cleaned up the quality of the movies and seemed to only add scenes. With these DVDs, they change things. Like the Anakin at the end of Return of the Jedi, Boba Fett's voice, the emperor hologram in the Empire Strikes Back...

When I was watching the Empire Strikes Back yesterday, one scene just made me so angry. It was during the scene at Echo Base when Han Solo just tells Leia that he's leaving and she follows him out. Han famously pinpoints Leia's problem and asks her, "Afraid I was gonna leave without giving you a goodbye kiss?" "I'd just as soon kiss a Wookiee." At this point Han yells at her, "I can arrange that. You could use a good kiss!"

Except...the second half of the sentence was gone. All Han says is, "I can arrange that." He doesn't yell at Leia that she needs a good kiss. I was shocked. Where was that line? It's such a great one. I rewound the scene twice to make sure that it really wasn't there.

Whhhhhy? This is the thing that drives me crazy about these DVDs. Things are just changed, or taken out, and I don't understand why. I was happy with the original trilogy, even the Special Editions, but this is getting ridiculous. Some of it I guess can be justified, like changing Boba's voice to make him sound like Jango/the clones. I don't like it, but it can be understood. I can find no reason for this line to be taken out though.

On a separate note, while watching ESB again, there was something that struck me that I had never really appreciated before: Han Solo is an amazing pilot. AMAZING. Chewbacca and Han make a killer team. That asteroid field is so hard to navigate and yet he does it with what looks like ease. I try to imagine navigating that field in a video game with no extra lives...I would die. No wonder the chances of survival are "3,720 to 1." I just watched him fly and think "wow."